Government Investigations

• Represented scores of wholesale energy and commodity dealers, merchants, producers and end users in CFTC, FERC and joint CFTC-FERC investigations, several of which were closed without the initiation of enforcement actions
• Negotiated many settlements with the CFTC, FERC and exchanges on behalf of energy and commodity trading companies

• Represented several international financial institutions in selling their commodities businesses
• Represented the power marketing affiliate of an international financial institution in connection with the sale of its U.S. power and natural gas trading business to an affiliate of a major international oil company
• Represented J. Aron & Company/Goldman Sachs in acquiring the international commodity trading business of Constellation Energy Commodities Group, Inc.
• Represented Merrill Lynch in negotiating a complex financing and tax-equity investment commitment for the construction of a series of geothermal power plants
• Represented Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Merrill Lynch Commodities, Inc. in their acquisition of Entergy-Koch Trading, LP
• Represented Morgan Stanley in acquisitions of several portfolios of physical and financially-settled energy commodity transactions

^{* Paul advised on these matters at his prior firm.}

Prior to entering private practice, Paul was a trial attorney in the Division of Enforcement of the CFTC, where he represented the commission in numerous civil and administrative enforcement actions.

Paul is a past chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Derivatives and Futures Law. He is a member of the Energy Bar Association, the Law & Compliance Division of the Futures Industry Association and a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, where he co-taught a graduate law course on the regulation of commodity and derivatives transactions. He is a member of the Duke Law Alumni Board of Visitors.